GREENSBORO, N.C. — You've got money and you put it in the bank. Maybe it's a retirement fund, a money market account, stocks, all of these can help your money to grow.
Over time you hope your money doubles, triples, quadruples in size.
So if someone promised you they could double your money almost immediately, danger signs should start flashing in your mind.
Sometimes we bypass the danger in the hope of more money and that’s where it all goes wrong, especially lately with this claim with cryptocurrency.
“It requires you to give them your cryptocurrency. Often what happens is that poof the cryptocurrency is gone when you try and remove it from the investment fund,” said Christopher Leach, Federal Trade Commission.
Scammers also send e-mails posing as celebrities, including well-known crypto investor Elon Musk.
“And they say if you give me some cryptocurrency you can be entered into a drawing to win a whole lot more cryptocurrency,” said Leach.
Cryptocurrency is an alternative to money on the internet. Some, like Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, believe it has the potential to eventually replace modern currencies in the future. Others, perhaps more reasonably, see it as an alternative form of money for online purchases that will eventually be as commonplace as online shopping.
The popularity of cryptocurrencies among investors ballooned in the early 2010s and has continued into the second decade of the millennium. In 2013, Dogecoin's creators released $DOGE to the world as a joke, playing on the popularity of cryptocurrency at the time.
More recently, as a swell of guerilla investing forums on Reddit began tinkering with shorting businesses like GameStop, Dogecoin resurfaced on social media. Ironically, as Dogecoin's popularity rose, it became what it once parodied; one of the largest cryptocurrencies on the market.
From the FTC:
Imposter scams come in many varieties, but work the same way: a scammer pretends to be someone you trust to convince you to send them money. Learn how to spot an imposter scam.
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